dns, woof, thanks. Re the hole to which you refer dns, I wondered if it was a section of the departing right gear hitting the fuselage as it went by, likely tumbling? Not sure of the final locations of these sections - various photos show the two separated right gear sections fairly near the aircraft but other photos do not show them at all - perhaps it's foreshortened telephoto work, not sure. I wondered too, about the black soot-ish smears on the right fuselage at the wing-root - likely rubber deposits as the tires abraded at initial impact but just a guess, nothing more.
We should know very quickly whether the engines were developing power or not and what the fuel state was. The theme running through witnesses with amateur aviation backgrounds is, they sensed the approach was "abnormal". I've spent enough time on the M4 from the downtown London layover to know where in the sky approaches on the 27s are, so I give these kinds of reports some small credibility if only as indicators. Also, a "tight turn" onto final was reported by one, again credibility notwithstanding. I don't think it is possible to speculate on the meaning of the gear and flaps being in the landing config until we know when and at what altitude they were thus placed. Just not enough known yet.